Kingdom of Poland
Price range: $28.00 through $34.50
Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance heraldic series for Emperor Maximilian I, this time depicting the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland, as indicated by the inscription in Gothic script “Rej d’polaina”. The tilted shield displays a quartered composition on a red background (Gules), alternating the traditional Polish coat of arms — the White Eagle with open wings — with the symbol of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the armored knight wielding a sword known as Pogoń (or Vytis). This heraldic union faithfully reflects the geopolitical reality of the time, marked by the Jagiellon dynastic union that formed Poland-Lithuania, and serves as further testimony to the grandiose visual strategy of the Habsburgs, who used Dürer’s detailed lines and ornamental foliage in red and silver to map power, diplomacy and the complex territorial claims that shaped European courts in the 16th century.
